Supporters say the move has echoes of the introduction of title IX in the US 40 years ago.
Photograph: Alamy

The government has warned English schools that they are breaking the law if they spend more on boys’ sports teams than they do on girls’, in groundbreaking guidance supporters say could have a transformative impact on women’s sport.

While schools were told they could have single-sex sports teams, they were advised that any discrimination in treatment – such as allocating more funds to a boys’ football team than a girls’ – would be unlawful.

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“Where separate teams exist for different sexes, it would be unlawful discrimination for a school to treat one group less favourably – for example by providing the boys’ hockey or cricket team with better resources than the girls’ team,” states guidance issued by the Department for Education.

Supporters said the move had echoes of the introduction of title IX in the US 40 years ago, which forced public schools and universities to offer equal academic and athletic opportunities to both sexes and revolutionised women’s sport in the country. In 1974 fewer than 300,000 girls played high school sports in the US, a figure that has increased to 3.1 million today.

“It very much sends the right message that both boys and girls have the same entitlement of having the best possible chance to achieve in sport,” said Sue Campbell, director of women’s football at the FA and former chair of UK Sport.

“The introduction of title IX had a massive impact in the States, both in terms of developing women’s sport generally but also in creating role models in terms of managers, coaches. It transformed attitudes.”

The new guidance – which is non-statutory – could also help propel girls’ and women’s sport, but only if it was properly funded, she added. “Schools are working in very challenging times, so it is a great principle but the reality might that that half of nothing is still nothing.”

The eleven-time Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson said the move “certainly looks like a step towards title IX”.

“It raises questions of how this is going to be monitored and I would like to see if there are any unforeseen implications but at first read it looks very positive,” she said. “How it impacts on disabled people’s participation needs to be taken into account as well. “

The guidance – which is included in a wider document on gender separation in mixed schools – was issued after a court decision which meant that schools would no longer be able to substantially segregate boys and girls. The court of appeal ruled that the co-educational Al-Hijrah faith school in Birmingham had caused unlawful discrimination by separating thesexes.

The guidance states that segregation by sex in any mixed school is unlawful: “Any separation of pupils of either sex that denies them the choice or opportunity to interact socially, or to interact in an educational setting, with pupils of the other sex is likely to involve subjecting the pupils to a detriment because of their sex.”

It also explicitly states that boys and girls should be given the same chance to do any activity within the school. “It would also be unlawful to provide food technology classes for girls (only) and metalwork classes for boys (only),” it says.

Only 56% of girls enjoyed taking part in school sport compared with 71% of boys. And only 45% of girls saw the relevance of PE to their lives, against 60% of boys, despite evidence demonstrating that participation in sport improves career opportunities.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he did not think the guidance regarding spending and treatment of sports teams would cause schools much concern.

“I think most schools are very conscious of the need to demonstrate their commitment to diversity,” he said. “I was a head for 15 years and I would definitely make sure that the netball teams had the same support and resources as the rugby team.”

However, the new guidance might encourage schools to think about how their treatment of different teams was seen, he added. “It might be useful to encourage schools to hold up a mirror up to themselves to check what they are doing and how that might be perceived,” he said.